In escrow to buy beach adjacent property in Costa Rica.

[Rob Pattison]

I'm looking for advice from anyone who has bought property in Costa Rica.   It's been my dream to have a house within 60 seconds walk to a beach where I can surf, where I can step out on my front porch and both see and hear the ocean.

After 3 trips to Costa Rica over 3 years, I've finally found a lot, about 12,000 square feet from a surfing beach in a small village of about 300 to 500 people.  The village is south of Jaco, and north of Dominical.  

The lot has a house on it, 2 bed / 1 bath, built in the 80's and the inspector says is in poor condition and at some point will need to be torn down.  I'm buying the lot for $160k and plan to use it to spend long weekends and when I'm not there, rent it out through airbnb or similar.  I live in Los Angeles and can fly non-stop  into the capital city, San Jose in 5 and 1/2 hours.  The drive from the airport to this village is approximately 2 to 2.5 hours, depending on traffic.    The property title is in the form of a "concession", meaning basically a lease at this point, renewable every 20 years.   The attorney I've hired says she has never heard of a lease not being renewed.   I could buy a titled property, but they are all a 5 minute drive from the beach or further away.

My plan is to put about $20k into the house, stay there on some long weekends, rent it out when I'm not there, and think about what type of house I would like to eventually build, probably something like a 5 bedroom / 5 bath.   I'd put in an orchard with different types of fruit trees, possibly a pool, and one of those large chess boards like what is at Santa Monica Beach, where the board is on the ground, and the chess pieces range anywhere from knee high for a pawn, to chest high for the major pieces.

I welcome any advice as I've just started my due diligence period.